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THE MEMORY OF WASHINGTON. 



THE MEMORY OF WASHINGTON. 



A SERMON 



PKKACHI-II IN THE 



(^irst (![on|imialioual (Jllmrdr, Iikh)ieU, iS[m,, 



FEBRUARY 22, 1863. 



BV 

GEORGE RICHARDS. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
HENRY B. ASIIMEAD, BOOK AND JOB PRINTER, 

Nos. 1102 AND 1104 Sanso.u Street. 
18G3. 



EZI'L 



Rev. George RicnARns, 

Dear Sir, — The undersigiiei.l, members of j'our con- 
gregation, having had the satisfaction of hearing your Sermon, commemorative 
of the birth and character of Washington, on Sabbath morning, 22d inst., and 
believing that the patriotic and religious principles therein presented and en- 
forced are just to tlie mcmpry of the man, and peculiarly appropriate to the 
DAY ; worthy also of being promulgated in the community at large ; respect- 
fully request that you would furnish us with a copy for the press. 
Very cordially, your friends and parishioners, 

Philip S. Beebe, 
Henry B. Bisseli,, 
James B. Peck, 
Jason Whiting, 
Cyrus Catlin, 
Charles Adams, 
H. L. Vaill, 
D. L. Parmelee, 
H. R. CoiT, 

IJ. W. BUEL, 

F. P. McNeil, 
RivERius Marsh, 
RuFus Smith, 
Benjamin W. Mason, 
Thomas M. Coe, 
B. Aknt.s. 
LlTCHFlKLP, Fchnuiry 21, ISO;',. 



Litchfield, Februari/ 2G, 1SG3. 

Gentlemen, — The Sermon preached in your hearing, on Washington's Birth 
Day, does not aspire to present new views of his character or conduct, but to 
turn the general estimate of him to practical account. The leading incidents 
of his career are, in the main, condensed from his Life by Irving. If you 
deem the Discourse worthy of a wider circulation, it is at your service. 
Very respectfully yours, 

George Richards. 
Messrs. Philip S. Beebe, 

Henry B. Bissell, and others. 



SERMON, 



In verv deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in 

THEE MY power; AND THAT MY NAME MAY BE DECLARED THROUGH- 
OUT ALL THE EARTH. ExoduS ix. 16. 

Thus spake Jehovah to the King of Egypt. God at- 
tains his own ends by his own instruments. When he 
has great and important results to bring to pass, he pro- 
vides means adapted and adequate to their accomplish- 
ment. 

Very bad men, actuated by very bad motives, may be 
used to promote the very best designs : Pharaoh was an 
instance. * Very good men, actuated by very good 
motives, may be made instrumental of benefits far trans- 
cending their most sanguine expectations : Washington 
was an instance. 

A hundred and thirty-one years ago to-day, in an 
ancient homestead in Virginia, near the banks of the 
Potomac, was born the child, destined to be looked up 
to, by all parties and sections, with singular unanimity, 
as the father and founder of his country ; the one man 
whose pre-eminent worth and unexampled services are 
deemed beyond dispute; the most discordant opinions 
claiming his sanction and seeking the shelter of his au- 
thority; war, itself, sheathing its sword, and keeping 
truce about his sepulchre. 

Do we not well, at a time like this, when dissension 
and division are the order of the day, to recall, though 



on the Sal)bcath, and in the sanctuary, what manner of 
man he was, how ProA^dence had endowed and disci- 
plined him for his diversified trusts, and with what 
signal success he acquitted himself of so overwhelming- 
responsibilities ? 

I. Look first at the original constitution of the man. 
He who had so much for him to do, framed him accord- 
ingly. He was cast, body and mind, in a capacious 
mould. Great qualities, rarely found single, were 
grouped in him. Traits, generally thought conflicting, 
were harmonized in him. 

Though it would hardly have been suspected from his 
accustomed equanimity, he was a man of strong passions 
and impetuous impulses. In rare instances, the pent 
up elements found vent, and terrible was the explosion. 
Had<iie possessed the mild and placid temper commonly 
ascribed to him, he would have lacked the force essen- 
tial to the difficult task assigned him. The surface was, 
usually, cold and still, and needed to be, but the volcanic 
fires slumbered within. 

United to these passions and impulses, was a will 
competent to restrain them. lie governed others, by 
first governing himself. Only those admitted to his 
privacy, who saw him when under the least restraint, 
were aware with how tight a rein he held himself in 
check. He had made up his mind to be his own master, 
and seldom was his vigilance off its guard, or his au- 
thority successfully disputed. 

Conjoined to these antagonist forces, was a judgment, 
as sound, as fair, as even-balanced, as often falls to the 
lot of man. Glad of light fi'om any quarter, patient to 
hear and weigh contradictory opinions, slow to arrive at 



a decision, Avatcbful against the bias of pride, prejudice, 
self-interest, his conclusions, perhaps, were as nearly in- 
fallible as can be expected of mere human reason. 

He was a man, too, of minute detail, keeping his own 
accounts, private and public, in the neatest of hand- 
writings, and with a sort of microscopic accuracy ; amid 
his busiest campaigns, superintending his estates, in- 
structing his stewards, regulating the routine of crops, 
caring for the stock, the dairy, the fences, the tools, as 
if nothing were small enough to escape him ; and yet, 
withal, how broad and comprehensive were his views, 
embracing the entire country in all its departments; the 
army, to be recruited, fed, clothed, equipped, drilled, its 
movements skillfully and deliberately planned ; Congress 
to be respectfully addressed, and begged and importuned 
to vote the requisite supplies ; the States to be kept in 
harmony, and urged each to its proportionate exertions ; 
foreign nations to be conciliated and bound by treaty 
stipulations ! — what had he not upon his hands ? Yet 
the less never seemed to encroach upon the greater, nor 
the greater upon the less. The compass and variety of 
his fficulties rendered him competent to all. In such 
large dimensions, and symmetrical proportions, had his 
Creator constituted him. 

II. Again, the earh^ training of Washington singularly 
fitted him for the two diverse spheres, he was ordained 
to occup3^ As he was to be alike conspicuous and im- 
portant, as a soldier and civilian, the Providence which 
designed him for both educated him for both. 

His ancestry, which can be traced back to the century 
succeeding the Norman conquest, boasted its mail-clad 
warriors and gallant knights. His great-grandfather, 



who removed to this country, was a Colonel of the Vir- 
ginia forces, which he led against the Indians that 
ravaged the Potomac settlements. The elder brother 
of George, his guardian and instructor, was a captain in 
his majesty's service, and distinguished for his valor. 

Mount Vernon was a resort of British officers, both 
of the army and navy, where feats of arms were dis- 
cussed, and famous victories exulted over. The little 
lad, all ears, lost nothing, and went out among the boys 
to tell and show how fields were won. When the French 
war was imminent, and the youth of nineteen was com- 
missioned an Adjutant-General, one of these veteran cam- 
paigners lent him treatises on military tactics, put him 
through the manual exercise, and gave him an idea of 
field evolutions, while another was his instructor in the 
sword exercise. His arduous and honorable service 
against the French and their savage allies, first in sub- 
ordinate positions, then as Commander-in-Chief of the 
Virginia forces, was the best i^reparation possible for 
the still more harassing and eventful trust in due 
time to be devolved on him. 

It w^ould seem as if the most intricate problems of the 
Revolutionary struggle had been worked out, on a 
smaller scale, in this preliminary contest. The mother- 
country was unwittingly training, under her own flag, 
the master-spirit who was to emancipate his countrymen 
from her iron thrall. She " meant not so, neither did her 
heart think so," but so had a higher will ordained. 

In like manner, was this same youth " under tutors 
and governors," who educated him for his civil functions. 

His first ancestor, in this country, was not only a 
military leader, but a member of the House of Burgesses. 

So, too, the elder brother already spoken of. At the 



age of twenty-six, Washington himself was elected by 
a large majority against formidable competitors to a seat 
in that dignified and influential body, where his calm 
and wdse, but resolute and indejDendent, spirit helped to 
direct and develope the growing opposition to the ty- 
ranny of king and parliament. 

When the first Continental Congress met at Philadel- 
phia, — an assembly which, for weight of character and 
consummate sagacity, has rarely been equalled, — Wash- 
ington w^as one of the delegates appointed from Virginia. 
How well he acted his part in tha^ grave conclave, let 
his colleague, Patrick Henry, testify.' Asked, on his 
return, w^hom he considered the greatest man in Con- 
gress, he said, '-If you speak of eloquence, Mr. Rut- 
ledge, of South Carolina, is by far the greatest orator ;" 
(he might have excepted himself;) " but if you speak of 
solid information and sound judgment. Colonel Washing- 
ton is, unquestionably, the greatest man on that floor." 
As, when he w^as elevated to the command of our armies, 
he was found no novice, but marvellously, disciplined 
and equipped for the arduous post assigned him, so, 
when he was summoned to the chair of the Chief Ma- 
gistrate, with no usages nor precedents to guide, his ex- 
traordinary fitness for the position was no sudden inspi- 
ration, but the ripe result of this preparatory training, 
to which. the same far-seeing Providence had been sub- 
jecting him. 

III. Another rare combination characterized this man. 

By birth and social position, he belonged to the aris- 
tocracy. Even in the mother country, his family ranked 
with the privileged class. Transplanted to the "Old 
Dominion," they, at once, became extensive landholders, 



10 

and were elevated to prominent positions under the 
Crown. Among his earlier associates Avere the Fair- 
flixes, of noble blood ; who, initiated into the mysteries 
of high life in England, brought with them its refined 
graces and courtly manners to their new homes between 
the Potomac and Rappahannock. 

Bred in so favorable a school, an apt and ready pupil, 
the young Virginian soon became the model of a gentle- 
man. 

He inherited a competent property from his flither, to 
which he added laijgely by his marriage, and by his 
judicious management of his affairs ; and, thus, to a 
noble person and dignified address, joined the wealth, 
which, in that day and neighborhood peculiarly, greatly 
enhanced his personal and social consequence. Few 
men, probably, of his time enjoyed as unrestricted ac- 
cess to the stateliest mansions and selectest society of 
the most aristocratic of the Colonies. But where was 
there one more thoroughly superior to the narrow and 
selfish pride so apt to attend high social position ? If 
he felt it, he fought against it, and manfully subdued it. 
He was pre-eminently a man of the people — entered into 
their wants — divided their burdens — made their inte- 
rests his interests, and every way identified himself with 
their prosperity and adversity. 

Naturally, and by habit, reserved and distant; — never 
stooping to flatter and fawn around the multitude — to 
buy their suffrages by palliating their faults, and conniv- 
ing at, and participating in, their vices ; — he stood up 
for their rights against whoever would encroach upon 
them — took part in their toils and trials, as if their lot 
had been his — told them the honest truth about them- 
selves, reluctant as they might be to hear it — animated 



11 

them to duty by bearing the lion's share of it — was, in 
a word, the direct opposite of the timid, grovelling, time- 
serving, self-seeking demagogue, of which there were not 
wanting examples then as there have not been since. 
When the French and Indians were prowling round the 
defenceless settlements, and all eyes were turned to him, 
who was without men, arms, supplies, how touchingly 
does he appeal to the royal Governor : " The supplicat- 
ing tears of the women, and moving petitions of the men, 
melt me into such deadly sorrow, that I solemnly de- 
clare, if I know my own mind, I could offer myself a 
willing sacrifice to the butchering enemy ; provided that 
would contribute to the people's ease !" His deeds con- 
firmed his words ! So, after this barbarous struggle was 
ended, and the subordinate officers and soldiers failed to 
obtain the bounty lands promised them, he became their 
champion — started off, on horseback, into the wilder- 
ness, not yet secure — confronted the warriors he had 
lately fought against — one aged sachem telling him that 
he and his young braves had singled him out, at Brad- 
dock's defeat, and fired at him over and over,, but that 
the Great Spirit must have protected him; and, at length, 
at the mouth of the Great Kanawha, turning to account 
his skill as a surveyor, he affixed his mark to the lands, 
which he succeeded in securing to his valiant comrades. 
Still later, when the Stamp Act was passed, and foreign 
luxuries must be dispensed with, or an odious impost 
paid to an oppressive government, he appealed to his rich 
neighbors to unite with him in discarding such indul- 
gencies, and thus befriend their country. The articles 
proscribed he would not admit into his house, and en- 
joined his agent in London to ship nothing while subject 
to taxation. 



12 

" Our all," said he, " is at stake ; and the little con- 
veniences and comforts of life, when set in competition 
with our liberty, ought to be rejected, not with reluct- 
ance, but with pleasure." 

And afterward, when he left his noble mansion on the 
Potomac, replete with every reasonable indulgence that 
affluence could furnish, to encounter the hardships and 
exposures of camp life; though great pecuniary interests 
needed his personal supervision and languished for the 
lack of them— though the humblest common soldier 
underwent not a tithe of the anxiety and mental agony 
which the long-doubtful contest imposed on him ; still, 
he expressly stipulated that only his expenses should 
be paid, which he exactly recorded, unwilling to accept 
a ftirthing of recompense from his bleeding and impov- 
erished country. 

How, in contrast with the greedy speculators, in office 
and out of it, who have prowled, like famished wolves, 
round our fields of carnage — stealing everything they 
could lay their hands on — robbing the national treasury 
— purloining from the camp-chest — pilfering from the 
wounded in the hospitals — appropriating to themselves 
the little comforts meant for the dying, if not stripping 
the very dead ! 

Yes ! Washington, though an accomplished gentle- 
man, was more ; he was a man. He respected humanity, 
under whatever guise or garb. He went for his country 
— his whole country — without distinction ; not for the 
elect few among whom the accident of his birth or for- 
tune had cast his lot, but for the entire people, to whose 
destiny, for weal or woe, an all-disposing Providence had 
linked his own. 



13 

IV. Another union of opposites in this man was 
Southern birth and training, with Northern sentiments 
and preferences. 

Northern men with Southern principles abound : 
Washington was the reverse, rather. 

His sterling common sense, his patient industry, his 
thorough system, his close personal apj)lication to busi- 
ness, his economy amid aftluence, and temperance amid 
abundance, his habitual gravity and self control, qualities 
and habits not too frequent anywhere, are not held to be 
peculiarly indigenous to the Sunny South. 

They are more usually the product of a colder clime, 
a harder soil, and very difierent institutions. 

And who proposed Washington as the commander of 
our armies ? John Adams ; more than one of the 
Virginia delegates being cool on the subject, and one, 
clear and full against it. Repairing to head quarters, 
the new chief found himself at the head of a host, nearly 
every man at that time from East of the Hudson. How 
well he deserved, and how thoroughly he won their re- 
spectful confidence, need not be told. The general from 
one section of the country, the subordinate officers and 
rank and file from another, how creditable to both was 
their hearty co-operation! There were not wanting 
among so many, jealousies, suspicions, animosities ; but 
an unrivalled prudence, joined to a lofty magnanimity, 
managed to surmount them. The army for awhile was 
little better than a rabble, hurried together from everj^ 
quarter to maintain the common cause, and, at times, 
their leader must have been utterly out of patience with 
them ; yet for the most part he smothered his dissatis- 
faction, and made the best of it. " This unhappy and 
devoted province," he kindly said, '^^ has been so long in 



14 

a state of anarchy, and the yoke has been laid so heavily 
upon it, that great allowances are to be made for troops 
raised under such circumstances. The deficiency of 
numbers, discipline, and stores, can only lead to this con- 
clusion, that their spirit has exceeded their strength." 
After this rude militia, profiting by his stern but friendly 
discipline, had driven the British veterans, ships and 
men, out of the Port of Boston, never more to re-establish 
themselves on the soil or in the harbors of New England, 
to whom still did the commander-in-chief look for troops 
and suppUes, with a more unwavering assurance, than to 
Governor Trumbull of Connecticut? In whose military 
skill and genius did he repose higher confidence than in 
those of General Green of Rhode Island ? 

So when later he filled the Presidential chair, who 
were his most confidential advisers ? On whom did he 
more implicitly rely to give shape and direction to his 
policy than on Adams, Ja}^, and Hamilton ? 

Could lie discern no good beyond his immediate sec- 
tion ? Did he take it upon him to berate the bigoted, . 
narrow-minded, puritanical spirit? 

No ! he left it to men born on this Eastern soil, to 
traduce their own fathers' memories, and spit on their 
own mothers' graves ! 

In yet another respect was he less a Southern man, 
than a Northern : he was profoundly averse to Slavery. 
How could he fail to be ? He fought through the Revo- 
lutionary war under the declaration, that " all men are 
created equal, and endowed with certain inalienable 
rights, among which is Liberty." That declaration, 
penned by another Virginian statesman, adopted by the 
Congress from which he received his commission, for- 
mally endorsed by every State, he had ordered to be 



read at the head of every brigade, that all might know 
what he and they were fighting for. 

Was he the man lightly to retract his words, or to 
say one thing, meaning another ? Three years after the 
war he wrote : " I never mea.n, unless some particular 
circumstances should compel me to it, to possess another 
slave by purchase, it being among my first wishes to see 
some plan adopted by which slavery in this country 
may be abolished by law*." Eleven years later he 
writes : " I wish from my soul, that the Legislature of this 
State could see the policy of a gradual abolition of 
sla\'ery. It might prevent much future mischief." 
Resolved to do his part, at any rate, whoever neglected 
theirs, the third item in his will reads : " Upon the de- 
cease of my wife, it is my will and desire that all the 
slaves which I hold in my own right shall receive their 
freedom. To emancipate them during her life, though 
earnestly desired by me, would be attended with insuper- 
able difficulties." After providing for the aged and in- 
firm and children, and for the instruction in reading and 
writing of the apprentices, he continues : " I do hereby 
expressly forbid the sale or transportation out of the said 
commonwealth of any slave I may die possessed of, 
under any pretence whatsoever. And I do moreover, 
most pointedly and most solemnly, enjoin it upon my 
executors hereafter named, or the survivors of them, to 
see that this clause respecting slaves, and every part 
thereof, be religiously fulfilled at the epoch at which it 
is directed to take place, without evasion, neglect, or de- 
lay, after the crops which may then be on the ground 
are harvested." 

Suppose every other Virginia planter had refused to 
trafiic in human beings ! Suppose every other Southern 



IG 

master, when going up to appear before God, liad struck 
the shackles from every bondman in his charge, how 
changed w^ould have been the aspect of things, to-day ! 
" The future mischief" which this seer so anxiously 
anticipated, and so emphatically predicted, has befallen 
us. 

V. One other rare combination distinguished Wash- 
ington. He was a man of the world, and a man of God. 

A man of the world : not in the sense of a worldly man, 
but of a man fjimiliarly versed in human affairs, liberally 
endowed with what men at large admire — talents, wealth, 
social position, power, fame; who excelled in nearly 
everything which most men value and aspire after. 

United with this, if we may judge from the testimony 
of his associates, the tenor of his writings, his public 
policy, his private conduct, he was a religious man. 
" Tradition asserts that his widowed mother gathered 
daily her young household about her, and read to them 
lessons of religion and. morality out of some standard 
work, her' favorite volume being ' Sir Matthew Hale's 
contemplations, moral and divine.' This mother's manual, 
her name inscribed in it by her own pen, was preserved 
by her son with filial care, and may yet be seen in the 
library at Mount Vernon." 

While yet a lad, he drew up a code of morals and 
manners, .extremely minute and circumstantial, still 
shown in his handwriting, to which he studied to conform 
himself. " In his camp on the Great Meadows, he was 
wont to assemble his half-equipped soldiers, the leathern- 
clad hunters and woodsmen, the painted savages with 
their wives and children, to public prayers, uniting them 
in solemn devotion by his own example and demeanor." 



17 

A stated communicant in the Episcopal Church, 
though not cramped by denominational restrictions, he 
entered on, and went through, the war, constantly 
acknowledging his dependence upon God, and looking 
and pointing others to the one source of light and 
strength. 

In reply to the acclamations which greeted his arrival 
at Cambridge, he observed : ' " That his country had 
called him to active and dangerous duty; but he trusted 
that Divine Providence, which wisely orders the affairs 
of men, would enable him to discharge it with fidelity 
and success." 

In his parting address to his comrades in arms, he 
says : " May the choicest of Heaven's favors, both here 
and hereafter, attend those who, under the Divine aus- 
pices, have secured innumerable blessings for others." 

Amid the festivities that celebrated his accession to 
the Presidency, his language was : " When I contem- 
plate the interposition of Providence, as it was visibly 
manifested in guiding us through the Revolution, in 
preparing us for the reception of the general govern- 
ment, and in conciliating the good will of the people of 
America toward one another after its adoption, I feel 
oppressed, and almost overwhelmed with the Divine 
munificence." 

And his Farewell words to his countrymen deserve to 
be embalmed in every heart : " Of all the dispositions 
and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion 
and Morality are indispensable supports. In vain would 
that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should 
labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, — 
these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. 
And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that 



18 

Morality can be maintained without Religion. What- 
e\er may be conceded to the influence of refined educa- 
tion on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experi- 
ence both forbid us to expect that National Morality can 
prevail in exclusion of Religious principle." 

He met death, in his chamber, with the same un- 
ruffled serenity with which he had often braved it in 
the forefront of battle. *'I die hard," said he; "but I 
am not afraid to go." 

A few questions will conclude. 

1. May we not hope that a land, thus signally f^ivored 
of Providence, will yet be spared ? 

Did God raise up, qualify, commission, so august a 
character as Washington, — enable him to conduct us 
through the fire and blood of an eight years' war, — to 
preside over the organization of a government on the 
whole so wise and equal, — to be himself its first Chief 
Magistrate, exemplifying every civic virtue in his policy 
and person, — and all, that within the space of fourscore 
years, the ripe life-time of a man, the whole experiment 
should come to naught ? 

It is not probable. We are warranted to believe 
otherwise. 

2. Should not our public men copy after this pattern 
of true patriotism ? 

Washington aimed to unite his countrymen — not to 
divide them ; to promote deference to duly-constituted 
authority — not to undermine and overturn it. He was 
often dissatisfied with the course pursued by Congress — 
felt that they were slow — that they did not fully realize 
the danger of their country — that sinister and selfish 
ends actuated too many of them ; but he did not for that 



19 

reason counsel anarchy — he woiikl be no fomentor of 
civil strife— it was enough to be at war with a foreign 
foe, witliout cutting one another's throats. 

When the popular discontent broke out in open insur- 
rection, he was for prompt and de'cisive measures to 
suppress it. '-You talk," writes he, "of employing in- 
fluence to appease the present tumults. Influence is 
not government. Let us have a government by which 
our lives, liberties, and properties will be secured ; or 
let us know the worst at once." 

While one man's vote counts equal to another's, not 
so with opinions. There are leaders in all communities. 
They who bear such sway over their fellows should use 
it for good. First to deceive the masses, then to rouse 
their evil passions, goading them on to acts of violence, 
is to stir up a tempest much easier raised than regu- 
lated : it may be another man's house burned over him 
to-day, and yours over you to-morrow. 

The guillotine, to which Robespierre had condemned 
so many, spouted Avith his own blood at length. God 
forbid that the Jacobinism that transformed Paris into a 
slaughter-house should redden our streets with gore ; or 
that the fatal experiment of South Carohna should be 
repeated in Connecticut ! 

3. Ought the cost of this war, in treasure or life, to 
dishearten us ? 

There were times in the Revolution when the stoutest 
hearts seemed failing them for fear. The heroic leader, 
himself, was openly denounced as unflt for his position. 
Cabals were organized, plots fomented, to oust him from 
his place. Such a waste of men and means, and so 
meagre a return ; so many defeats, so few, if any, vie- 



2.0 

tories, must no longer be tolerated, said these agitators. 
Schemers, like Belial, 

" All false and hollow, though his tongue 
Dropp'd manna, and could make the worse appear 
The better reason, to perplex and dash 
Maturest counsels," 

drew round them the restive malcontents — aggra- 
vated their uneasiness — intensified their hate — then 
used them as the poor tools of their own ambition. 
" That spirit of freedom," Avrote Washington, " which, 
at the commencement of this contest, would have gladly 
sacrificed anything to the attainment of its object, has 
long since subsided, and every selfish passion has taken 
its place. It is not the public, but private, interest, 
which influences the majority of mankind ; nor can the 
Americans any longer boast an exception." How sting- 
ing, yet how just, a commentary on human nature ! 
But, by-and-by, brilliant triumphs restored heart and 
hope; the timorous grew brave; the temporising and 
vacillating, decided. 

Why may it not be so again ? When, in the good 
Providence of God, the starry flag shall wave again over 
Fort Sumter; when the commerce of the Mississippi 
shall flow, unimpeded, into the Gulf; when thte sway of 
an oligarchy, more reckless and unprincipled than ever 
ruled in Venice, shall be forever broken; men will wonder 
they could have been so impatient, wonder that any 
suffering and sacrifice could have seemed excessive that 
were necessary to drive from this soil a tyranny hateful 
to God and man, and which would inevitably have sunk 
us to political perdition had we not had the firm, and 
unflinching, determination to get rid of it at every hazard. 



21 

4. Finally, should not our trust be where Washing- 
ton's was, in Grod? Could that handful of colonies, 
feeble and few, each jealous of the other, and all of each, 
hope to shake off the yoke, intolerable though it was, of 
the foremost power of the world? Yes ! if God favored 
it ; if it fell within the scope of his beneficent designs. 
AVhat are weak and strong to Him, " who weigheth the 
mountains in scales, and taketh up the isles as a very 
little thing ?" If a powerful and independent nation, in 
place of tributaiy provinces, would better subserve his 
purposes, would more rapidly diffuse light and know- 
ledge, Avould widen the sway of just and equal laws, the 
enjoyment of rational liberty, the spread of a pure Chris- 
tianity, how was the veto of the I3ritish king to hinder 
it ? He might darken our coast with fleets, empty upon 
our shores his Hessian hordes, " He would blow upon 
them, and they should wither, and the whirlwind take 
them away as stubble." 

Even so, in our day, if this land, reconstructed, will, 
become Immanuel's land ; if its Constitution and laws 
shall be conformed to the divine precepts; if the rights 
acknowledged to belong to all shall be secured to all ; if 
" a republican form of government," guaranteed by the 
Constitution to every portion of this country, shall be 
extended to every portion of it ; if the iron-heel shall be 
lifted, which, for half a century, has trodden down free- 
dom of speech and of the press, over half our national 
area, till at length exile or death is the doom of every 
man who dares to differ from the lords of the lash on 
the subject of human servitude — in a word, if this semi- 
slave country is to become a free country, this half- 
barbarous country a wholly civilized country; if the 
Gospel which we send. to the Pagan is first to Chris- 



22 

tianize ourselves ; then, assuredly, are nature, providence, 
God on our side ; and liow puerile and impotent Avill be 
the efforts of all the myrmidons of despotism. South and 
North combined, to thwart so sublime a consummation ! 
Methinks the hour foretold by Jefferson has arrived. 
" We must await," said he, '' with patience, the work- 
ings of an overruling Providence, and hope that that is 
preparing the deliverance of these our suffering brethren. 
When the measure of their tears shall be full, when their 
groans shall have involved heaven itself in darkness, 
doubtless a God of justice will awaken to their distress, 
and by diffusing light and liberality among their op- 
pressors, or, at length, by his exterminating thunder, 
manifest his attention to the things of the world, and 
that they are not left to the guidance of a blind fatality." 

" God be merciful unto us, and bless us, and cause his 
face to shine upon us. That thy w^ay may be known 
^upon earth ; thy saving health among all nations." 

" In the shadow of thy wings will we make our refuge 
until these calamities be overpast." 



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